LAUREL, De. --- Early Saturday morning and after a 20-minute long battle, James Lord with the help of his son James Jr. was able to get a 48.2 pound, 40-inch long Blue Catfish onto their boat. James says it wasn't until he pulled it out of the water he realized it was a special catch.
"And 18 to 20-pound fish sometimes feel like it's going to be a 50-pound fish," Lord said. "So every single time, it's like an adrenaline rush that this could be the next biggest fish and it just so happened it was the biggest fish."
He says the key is knowing the specie you are fishing for and having the right bait.
"It demands on what you're targeting," Lord said. "It seems like this summer it's been so hot that a lot of the other fish weren't biting so we started targeting catfish in general and you got to use a bigger bait to catch a bigger fish. so we used live bait from the river, and I mean a pretty big one. and we happened to catch the bigger fish."
Now Jr. did play an important role in the operation.
"We had four poles out and knowing that it was going to be a big fish, I had to reel up all the poles and everything to get them out of the way so we weren't crossing the lines," Lord Jr. said.
And he's not letting his competitive spirit stop him from being proud of his dad.
"Really just congratulations to my dad," Lord Jr. said. He's got the state record, but I'm looking to beat it! "
Until then, they will continue to enjoy the pride of the accomplishment.
The next stop for this big catch is New York where it will be stuffed and returned to James. He said this process cost around 13 hundred dollars and says it was worth it.
